9 Technologies Security Researchers Will Break At Black Hat

This week's Black Hat USA Conference in Las Vegas will showcase hacks, tools and ideas that will once again challenge the way we think about IT security. Here are nine technologies that will be on the firing line as security researchers discuss and demonstrate vulnerabilities and exploits.

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Sometimes it takes an attacker literally getting his or her hands on a system to compromise information within it --which is why a number of security researchers are shining light on ways the bad guys could potentially break into office buildings, even those protected by key card systems and alarms. In one Black Hat presentation, Fran Brown of security firm Bishop Fox will show how he created a device using a commercially available Arduino circuit board and a key card reader made for parking garages that can steal key card information from door badges as far as three feet away -- a key first step in cloning fraudulent access cards.

Another talk by Brown's colleagues at Bishop Fox, Drew Porter and Stephen Smith, will describe how security researchers were able to create a rogue cell base station in order to intercept signals from one of the most widely used alarm key pads in order to prevent a system from reporting an alert to the authorities and to turn off the audible alarm.

Ericka Chickowski specializes in coverage of information technology and business innovation. She has focused on information security for the better part of a decade and regularly writes about the security industry as a contributor to Dark Reading. View Full Bio